Books News - Writing the Uncanny with Dead Ink this September!

Despite the effects of our various lockdowns, school closures and self-isolation, this past year has been surprisingly fruitful. I have an anthology coming out with Unsung Stories at the end of the summer, Out of the Darkness, raising funds and awareness for mental health charity Together for Mental Wellbeing. I also have a brand new story coming in Mark Morris's excellent, high-profile anthology Beyond the Veil, published by Flame Tree this October.

Earlier this month, another long-term book project was finally announced. Alongside Richard V. Hirst, I've co-edited a book called Writing the Uncanny for Dead Ink Books. Published this September, it works as a guide for both the reader of the Uncanny and the writer wanting to write strange stories. There's an intro from Richard and myself, essays from some of the best writers of weird, unsettling fiction, and lists of suggested further reading for those wishing to expand their knowledge of the genre.

You can see more details of the book - and pre-order a copy - on the Dead Ink website here. As an extra sneak peek, here's a list of the essays contained within:

  • Negative Spaces and Ambiguity: A Toolkit for Writing Uncanny Fiction by Lucie McKnight Hardy
  • A Many-Storied House by Michèle Roberts
  • Finding the Comedy in the Blatantly Unfunny: A Personal Journey Through Three and a Half Tales of Unease by Robert Shearman
  • Personal Experience in the Uncanny by Alison Moore
  • Half-Concealed Places, or a Particularly Humdrum Uncanny by Gary Budden
  • Beach Reading by Nicholas Royle
  • Potluck: Making the Most of Your Little Horrors by Chikodili Emelumadu
  • In the Forest, Stories Grow: Writing Uncanny Fiction with Fairy Tales by Claire Dean 
  • Seeing by the Moonlight: Thoughts on ‘The Hospice’ and Robert Aickman by Jeremy Dyson
  • Seeing Things and Saying Things: Writing the Ghost by Jenn Ashworth
  • Haunting the Text: Housing Ghosts in Fiction by Catriona Ward
  • All You Have to do is Die by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
  • ‘You Must All be Very Worried’: Freud’s Uncanny and Hoffman’s ‘The Sandman’ by Timothy J. Jarvis

We're thrilled to have already received a few glowing endorsements, too. Ramsey Campbell has called it "An impressively extensive survey of the themes and techniques of uncanny fiction, full of stimulating insights and routes for further exploration," while Daisy Johnson has dubbed it "A brilliant and winding exploration. The perfect companion to all things weird and wonderful." 

All of that should be enough to pique your interest, at least. If you're a writer or reader of the strange, the weird and the unsettling, then there's a Writing the Uncanny-shaped space on your bookshelf. And you know what to do about that, don't you... 

Pre-order Writing the Uncanny

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